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Dragon Age voice actor arrested on multiple charges over allegations, including revenge porn and harassment

3 months ago

3 min read

The Chenango County Sheriff’s Office has arrested Jonathan Rees, also known as Greg Ellis, on multiple charges. A report by WBNG states that Rees turned himself in at the Sheriff’s office when asked, before being “processed, arraigned, and released”, and will appear in court at a later date to face the charges. Rees is known for his role as Cullen Rutherford in the Dragon Age series, appearing first in Dragon Age: Origins, as well as Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition.

The charges in question pertain to an unnamed woman, cited in court documents as Jane Doe. They allege Rees of “offering a false instrument” (that is, a false document, form and so on) in the first degree, as well as “unlawful surveillance in the second degree”. Other charges include making a false written statement, perjury, aggravated harassment, coercion, and “unlawful dissemination or publication of an intimate image”.

Doe is said to have been in a relationship with Rees between 2016 and 2022, before breaking up with him and cutting off all contact—the documents accuse Rees of threatening Doe with “references to self-harm and exposing explicit content of Doe to a large audience”. The documents also accuse Rees of sending “illicit photos” of Doe to her friends and family.

The report also states that in 2022 Rees “testified in open court and admitted to his attempt to use ‘revenge porn’ to extort Doe”—in response, a restraining order was put in place. The documents later state that Rees tried to intimidate a third-party witness, and threatened on social media to reveal Doe’s identity as retaliation.

Rees has a history of controversy, such as this 2020 video featuring an in-character rant (as Cullen Rutherford) decrying the “intellectual glitterati” and the “#metoo” movement and asking fans to “plant their flag against cancel culture”—before responding (again, as Cullen Rutherford) to posts on social media levelled against Rees. While many of his later tweets aren’t accessible anymore, Rees also publicly burnt bridges with Mark Darrah when he left Bioware that same year, calling him “a disloyal, duplicitous corporate fake”.

Despite this attempt to—and I’m quoting that video, here—”have me, and my voice actor Greg Ellis tossed into the cancel culture wastelands”, Rees has starred in videogame roles as recently as 2023, voicing a handful of roles in Hogwarts Legacy, and has also made appearances on television and animation.

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